Western Division
Newsletter Volume 59, No. 3 http://www.tcawestern.org May 2013
Upcoming Meet Notices Western Division’s next train meet will take place on Saturday,
June 1, 2013 in the Arcadia Senior Center, located at 405 S. Santa
Anita Avenue in Arcadia, California.
To get to the meet, exit the 210 Freeway at Santa Anita Avenue.
Drive south about half a mile and turn right into the Arcadia Park
Parking lot. The hall is located next to the lawn bowling area.
Look for the sign.
The doors open at 10AM for setup, trading, and selling. Please
visit the Western Division website, at http://www.tcawestern.org
for more information and a map.
The display theme for June will be ‘Pennsylvania RR’. Show off
an item and facilitate the transfer of knowledge on collecting toy
trains with your fellow members. Western Division’s 2013 schedule of meets and display themes is
as follows: July 27th – Red White & Blue & Military Trains,
August 24th – Passenger Trains, September 28th – Trolleys (No
Cable Cars!), October 26th - Halloween, and December 14th –
Holiday Accessories.
This year’s special raffle prize is an ‘O’ gauge 1990 version of the
Lionel #700E Scale Hudson engine and tender with its display case
and matching articulated tinplate Rail Chief cars. Tickets will be
on sale at the monthly meets for $20. Only 100 tickets are
available, and the regular $100 bill monthly giveaway is facilitated
through the sale of these tickets.
Included in this newsletter mailing is the ballot for the 2013 board
of director’s election. Please make sure to fill it out and send it in.
President’s Message By Manny Gonzalez, WD President
Famously, Woody Allen once observed “80% of life is showing
up”. And while often slightly misquoted, the essence of his
observation is usually conveyed quite effectively. Regardless of
whether you’re a fan or not, he may have gotten this one right. It’s
hard to think of Mr. Allen as one of the great philosophers of the
20th
Century, but some feel he may have tapped into one of the
Great Human Truths. When young, he realized that he wasn’t the
smartest, or even the most talented, and would need to find other
ways to make up for this possible lack of competitive edge. He
would need to work harder, or longer, or do whatever else a
particular situation might require – and he resolved to live his life
this way.
In a similar vein, there are some folks that espouse the “80/20
Rule”. This is the idea that often 80% (or the bulk) of most things
are achieved with only 20% of the effort – the rest is energy spent
refining and improving with ever smaller return on the effort
expanded. And whether we want to argue for 80/20, or 50/50, or
whatever combination, this dynamic relationship has been proven
over and over again.
I think these are important reminders for how to involve ourselves
in TCA. Much like life, showing up is important yet simple while,
at the same time, small efforts often yield big results. We all seek to influence what goes on, to help set the ship’s
direction, even when we aren’t the ones steering. But we also need
to buy into notions beyond ‘if I like what’s going on, maybe I’ll
come or stay a little longer’. If not, we will wake up one day wondering, and then lamenting, about what once was and what
became of it. March Meet Recap
By Robert Caplan, WD Recording Secretary
The display theme for the March meet was ‘Flatcars’. Bob Nord
showed some custom made Marx flat cars with military vehicle
loads and crates. He also explained, and showed what happens
when you don't think about size when acquiring items on E-bay.
Dave Mabee displayed an unusual pre-war era Lionel ‘O’ gauge 4
wheel flat car that was made without any mounting slots and holes
to accommodate tab insertion for a load.
Herb Mayer presented his Lionel Post-war era ‘O’ gauge #6418
four truck extra-long depressed center flat car. Les Cochran shared
a double-cab semi-truck load flat.
Robert Trimble showed some unusual flat cars, including an ‘O’
scale motorized Thorn Creek Route #20 with two crew houses, one
on each end.
Rudy Felix likes flat cars with boat loads. He also displayed a very
unusual Lionel #6262 post-war era ‘O’ gauge black flat car with a
Cooper-Jarrett 2 trailer load. It’s unusual because the black #6262
was manufactured as a wheel car by Lionel, not as a trailer flat.
But the item appeared to be factory built complete with the riveted
brace platform for the trailer load.
Steve Waller presented an early post-war era Lionel ‘O’ gauge die-
cast flat car and a later flat car with a custom load. Bob Spellmire
showed a green BN gondola and a green BN hopper to match the
Lionel ‘O’ gauge Burlington Northern set he won in the Christmas
meet raffle.
There were some great items seen on the trading tables, including
a pre-war Lionel Standard gauge #390 with tender and original
boxes, a Williams Reproduction Lionel #381E Standard gauge
Bild-A-Loco, and Lionel #260E Loco. Jim Kenney had an Ives
#3239 1 gauge electric and an ‘O’ gauge Marx tinplate M10000
that had been outfitted with a Lionel motor.
Some great rail action took place on the backroom layout with
Steve Waller’s brand new MTH B&O Standard gauge passenger
set traversing the outside loop, and an American Flyer tinplate ‘O’
gauge freight set navigating the 8.
Raffle winners were Robert Caplan, Bob Nord, Mark Spears, and
Ray Sugg. Steve Waller won the $100 bill.
April Meet Recap By Robert Caplan, WD Recording Secretary
There were some great items displayed at the April meet where the
theme was ‘Wrecks & Unusual Trains’. Bob Spellmire brought the
entire wrecking yard from his layout, with Shuco tin buildings,
Dinkey cars, WM Britains figures, and a Dorfan passenger set that
he restored from wreckage.
Harry Chortanian shared his 1946 black Lionel #221 ‘O’ gauge
streamlined engine and #221T tender without a whistle. Harvey
Tafel showed the members a very rare 1936 Lionel #289E
uncatalogued #1700 Set with aluminum cars of which two were
#1703 observation cars - one fitted with couplers at both ends.
Herb Mayer brought two items - a Lionel ‘O’ scale Commodore
Vanderbilt Hudson that was factory weathered and a Lionel #7
Standard gauge locomotive and tender. John Abbe shared an
unusual G Gauge General Locomotive that had printed on the
bottom “0-27”.
Robert Caplan displayed a pre-war Lionel #2814R white
refrigerator car painted over an M.D.T Merchant Dispatch
Refrigerator Line car.
Steve Eastman presented several unique items including a
handmade McKeen motor car with two scratchbilt trailing cars.
The cars were all constructed from PVC downspout pipes and had
painted bingo chips for the porthole windows. Steve also had a
handmade Hiawatha streamliner that was built with wooden frames
and aluminum skins. Steve’s other train was a US Toy Trains 3 car
Metro set with factory installed Marx motors.
Steve Waller brought two Lionel O-27 gauge gondolas. One was
the rare dark blue painted version and the other was the even rarer
silver Lionel #1002 gondola that he purchased on ebay at a bargain
price of $5. This silver version was the gondola used on the Lionel
disappearing train dealer layout and is valued at several hundred
dollars. Wayne Sheriff displayed a transformer powered
automobile with blinking parking lights, a light in the trunk and
under the hood that was in a wreck.
Mike Donovan, Steve Eastman and Greg Pulis enjoying the layout.
Harold Shapiro was the $100 Raffle Winner, Howard Bishop,
Steve Waller and Roy Bell won raffle prizes.
Fullerton Railroad Days
Western Division’s portable layout was a star attraction for the
kids at the Fullerton railroad Days event, May 4th
and 5th
, 2013.
American Flyer Wide Gauge Submitted By Jim Kenney
This is the 2nd
of a 3 part series of articles on rare American Flyer
wide gauge uncataloged train sets. Previously, I shared a rare
Speigel Department Store uncataloged set with a #4635 St. Paul-
style locomotive and 3 Brown 19” long passenger cars, all with
original boxes.
This set is an equally, if not rarer example of AF Wide Gauge. It is
a J. C. Penney Department store uncataloged passenger car set,
commonly called the ‘Red Tomato’ set due to the deep red color of
the locomotive and passenger cars. It is a different color red than
what was used for the cataloged sets of the time.
This set is actually an Empire Express passenger set, (Empire
Express sets were also sold through J. C. Penney’s Department
stores in ‘O’ gauge, but that’s another story) consisting of a New
Haven style electric locomotive numbered #4753 along with a
#4171 Knickerbocker Pullman car and #4172 Henry Hudson
Observation car. These are the only passenger cars with the
Knickerbocker and Henry Hudson names. Both cars have Empire
Express brass plates along with the numbers for the cars, and have
early black, flex trucks without journal boxes.
The Locomotive also has Empire Express brass plates and the
number 4753 in brass. The locomotive is painted tomato red and
the passenger cars have tomato red roofs. The sides are
lithographed and in excellent condition. I bought this set from a
collector in the Pacific Northwest a long time ago when I was
seriously looking for American Flyer Wide gauge trains, but the
set did not come with the original boxes. About 10 or 15 years
later, I was doing a search on ebay, and came across the original
boxes for the set which included the set box and individual car and
engine boxes.
So, what you see in the photos is the original set box with a set
#1422 which dates to 1927. The car boxes are stamped with the
correct numbers for the cars, #4171 and #4172, as is the engine
box. They are difficult to read but the numbers are present on the
boxes. This set number was a cataloged set number for a cataloged
red #1422 passenger set with a #4643 red locomotive and #4141
red litho passenger car and #4142 red litho observation car. The
Empire Express was sold from 1928-1929.
I guess American Flyer did not want to use a special box and label
for the J. C. Penney set so they packed it into a regular cataloged
set box and car boxes. Anyway, this is a very rare uncataloged
Department store special set and I am happy to still have it in my
collection. I have seen the set at the York train meets in the past
but never with the original boxes. See photos attached of the set
and let me know if you have any questions.
In Memoriam Western Division
member Brian T.
Fields (92-35114)
passed away on
May 4, 2013. Brian
was also an active
member of TTOS,
serving in a variety
of capacities
including Southern
Pacific Division
president, President
of TTOS National,
co-chairman of the
2000 Long Beach
(Queen Mary)
convention,
chairman of the 2006 Costa Mesa convention, and volunteer in
countless other activities. He was an active member of Orange
County Tinplate Trackers, a firm believer in operating layouts of
all sizes, and eager to share his knowledge of toy trains with
anyone who asked. Brian enjoyed his spare bedroom layout with
all of its operating accessories. We used to say "tin" was in his
blood as he loved Marx, Wyandotte, and all other tin toys - both
electric and wind-up, with small layouts for each. Brian was
always ready for a road trip and the lore of the chase - chasing real
trains across southern California. As a profession, Brian repaired
BMW cars and was crew chief for Mazdatrix Racing, rebuilding
motors, transmissions, and making repairs. Our sincerest
condolences go out to his family and loved ones.